Jul 2, 2012 7:54 PM

The other day I found a very handsome little spider in the house (possibly came in with a bunch of flowers). It was too small and quick to take a photo, and I didn't want to risk hurting it by rough capture; so put it out of the window to make its own way. The body and pedipalps were bright yellow and the legs a light amber colour. Size with legs estimated a little over 1cm, body much smaller. The way it held its legs reminded me of a crab spider; which could make sense of it possibly coming in with flowers.

Looking online it did resemble a crab spider, but the nearest pic I can see is of Misumena vatia the Goldenrod Crab Spider, (picture below) which doesn't seem to be a British species. The pedipaps, and perhaps the cephalothorax, were yellow - the palps standing out like mini Belisha beacons in spite of the small size.

It looks like a male Misumena vatia to me too, except it's eyes look a bit strange, as if it has more than the normal compliment with 2 or 3 eyes where there is normally one - but maybe it's just oddly marked.

Thanks, but you misread the question slightly. I don't have a picture of the actual spider. The above is supposed to be M vatia, it was the nearest picture I could find on the Internet that looked similar to the one I saw.

Oh sorry. If you're adamant it was bright yellow then I think it must be Misumena, although your picture is of the male. The female can be very yellow and bigger, although the palps wouldn't be quite so obvious.

Thanks. I'm certain the main colour (except for the legs) was bright yellow, especially the palps. It was too small to see any other markings or colours clearly. Anyway, it was definitely a male, because of the narrower abdomen, proportionately large palps and much longer legs compared to body. I would estimate body size at about 3 mm Pictures of the male Misumena look much too dark to be the one I saw.